Subject: Re: Multiple boot-up configurations
To: Ignatios Souvatzis <is@jocelyn.rhein.de>
From: Darren Reed <darrenr@reed.wattle.id.au>
List: current-users
Date: 10/03/1999 17:45:15
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In some email I received from Ignatios Souvatzis, sie wrote:
[...]
> > Anyway, is it worthy of committing or should it just stay a curiosity ?
>
> I'd say: yes, would be nice to have sometimes. Especially, if it is
> well-documented and doesn't need to be noticed unless somebody wants
> to use it.
Well, I have written a man page which I hope is better than those for
IP Filter in explaining how it is to be used (see attachment).
Finally, where should the script for doing this be placed - /etc, /sbin
or elsewhere ? My first thought was /etc but I can see this being
a little inappropriate, although after that nowhere else really grabs me
as being any better.
Darren
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.\" $NetBSD$
.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 1999
.\" Darren Reed. All rights reserved.
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.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
.\" 3. Neither the name of the author nor the names of its contributors
.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
.\" without specific prior written permission.
.\"
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.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
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.\"
.Dd October 3, 1999
.Dt NEWBTCONF 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm newbtconf
.Nd multiple boot-up configurations
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm
.Ar new-conf-name
.Op Ar orig-conf-name
.Nm ""
.Li init
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.Bl -tag -width indent
.Nm
is used to setup the system in such a way that the user is offered a
selection of environments in which to boot the system up into. The most
obvious application being for laptops to provide a network and non-network
environment after a successful boot into multi-user mode.
.Ss BACKGROUND
.Pp
In order to accomplish this task, the files usually associated with
establishing the current system's running configuration are replaced with
symbolic links which are adjusted with each boot to point to the appropriate
file for the desired run-time environment. This is accomplished by directing
all of the symbolic links through a directory which itself is a symbolic
link (
.Pa /etc/etc.current
), to the destination files.
At each bootup, the selection made changes which directory
.Pa /etc/etc.current
points to.
.Pp
Though doing this and reloading
.Pa /etc/rc.conf
in
.Pa /etc/rc after
the link has
been established, the resulting run-time configuration is effectively
controlled without the need to directly edit any files. The default boot-up
environment is selected by manually directing which configuration directory
.Pa /etc/etc.default
points to. As opposed to
.Pa /etc/etc.current
(which is updated
with every boot),
.Pa /etc/etc.default
is not automatically updated.
.Ss GETTING STARTED
.Pp
By default, NetBSD only has one boot-up configuration - that set in the
file
.Pa "/etc/rc.conf" .
In order to initialize the system for operating in a
manner which supports multiple boot configurations,
.Nm
must be run with the
.B init
option. This will create two symbolic
.Pa /etc/etc.current
and
.Pa /etc/etc.default
to the directory
.Pa "/etc/etc.network".
The following files are all moved into
that directory and symbolic links put in their place, in /etc, pointing to
.Pa /etc/etc.current/<filename>
:
.Bd -literal
/etc/fstab
/etc/rc.conf
/etc/mrouted.conf
/etc/ntp.conf
/etc/ifconfig.*
/etc/nsswitch.conf
/etc/rbootd.conf
/etc/inetd.conf
.Ed
.Pp
To test that this has been performed correctly, reboot your system into
NetBSD. After the kernel has autoconfigured and tty flags have been set,
a prompt should appear, preceeded by the following like, looking like this:
.Bd -literal
[network]
Which configuration [network] ?
.Ed
.Pp
The []'s are used to indicate the default configuration, which can be
selected by just pressing return. If there were other configurations
available at this stage, you would have 30 seconds to enter that name
and press return.
.Ss MUTILPLE CONFIGURATIONS
.Pp
Once an initial configuration has been setup, we can proceed to setup further
run time environments. This is done by invoking
.Nm
with the name of the new configuration to be created. By default, this step
will use the current configuration files as the basis for this setup unless
a second parameter is given - that of the configuration to use as the basis
for the new one. Upon completion, a new directory, /etc/etc.<newname>, will
have been created, priming the directory with the appropriate files for
editting. For example, if we do
.Nm
\fInonet\fP \fInetwork\fP it would create a directory named /etc/etc.nonet
and copy all the files from
.Pa /etc/etc.network
into that directory. Upon
rebooting, we should see:
.Bd -literal
[network] nonet
Which configuration [network] ?
.Ed
.Pp
To setup the system for booting into the "nonet" configuration, the files
in /etc/etc.nonet need be editted.
.Pp
If you wanted to make "nonet" the default configuration when booting, you
would need delete the symbolic link
.Pa /etc/etc.default
and create a new symbolic link (with the same name) to
.Pa "/etc/etc.nonet" .
Booting up after having made such a change would
result in the following being displayed:
.Bd -literal
network [nonet]
Which configuration [nonet] ?
.Ed
.Ss NO NETWORK
Assuming that we performed the above command successfully, in order to
successfully configure NetBSD to not configure interfaces (or generate no
errors from attempting to do so), the following settings (at least) should
be used in
.Pa "/etc/etc.nonet/rc.conf" :
.Bd -literal
auto_ifconfig=NO
net_interfaces=NO
.Ed
.Pp
Of course other networking services, such as NTP, routed, etc, are all
expected to be "NO". In general, the only settings which should be "YES"
are syslogd and update, with perhaps cron (if your cron scripts don't
need the network) and screenblank/wscons (if applicable). Other actions
such as deleting any NFS mounts from
.Pa /etc/etc.nonet/fstab
would also need to be undertaken.
.El
.Sh FILES
.Bl -tag -width /etc/mrouted.current -compact
.It Pa /etc/etc.current
Symbolic link to current config dir.
.It Pa /etc/etc.default
Symbolic link to default config dir.
.It Pa /etc/fstab
.It Pa /etc/ifconfig.*
.It Pa /etc/rc.conf
.It Pa /etc/mrouted.conf
.It Pa /etc/ntp.conf
.It Pa /etc/rbootd.conf
.It Pa /etc/ntp.conf
.It Pa /etc/inetd.conf
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr rc.conf 8 ,
.Xr rc 8
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
program first appeared in NetBSD-current, October 1999.
.Sh BUGS
.Pp
It presently does not display a count down timer whilst waiting for input
to select which configuration and nor does it abort said timer when a key
is first pressed.
.Pp
The management of the overall collection of multiple configurations is much
more manual than it ought to be. A general system configuration tool needs
to be written to ease their management.
.Sh AUTHORS
This shell script was written by Darren Reed <darrenr@netbsd.org> with
initial input from Matthew Green <mrg@netbsd.org> on how to approach this
problem.
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